Friday, September 12, 2008

Albert Wein at the Boston Athenaeum

First Museum
Retrospective of Sculptor's Work Celebrates Publication of First Major Monograph
on Wein's Life and Work

(BOSTON - July 15,
2008) The Boston Athenæum presents
"Albert Wein: American Modernist," the first museum retrospective of the
sculptor's work. The exhibition opens on
Sept. 17 and runs through Nov. 29, 2008, in The Boston Athenæum's Norma Jean
Calderwood Gallery. The Boston Athenæum is located at 10 ½ Beacon Street on
Beacon Hill near the State House. Admission is FREE and open to the public.
Gallery hours are Monday 9 a.m. - 8 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m. - 5
p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. For more
information, call (617) 227-0270 or visit www.bostonathenaeum.org.

Sculptor Albert Wein
(1915-1991) had both a keen interest in the human figure and an awareness of and
appreciation for modernist concepts, specifically abstraction. Today, scholars
are taking a closer look at artists such as Wein, who sought to balance the
legacies of the past with the excitement of the future. This exhibition will be
the first museum retrospective of Wein's work and is being held on the occasion
of the publication of the first major monograph on the artist's life and work.

According to
exhibition curator and art historian David Dearinger, "Scholarship and the
market are now in the process of rediscovering those American sculptors who came
of age during the 1930s and '40s. Many of these men and women were trained in
the traditional aesthetics of Classicism - they initially worked in the Art Deco
movement, gained experience through WPA projects, and ultimately helped bring
Modernism to America. Albert Wein was one of these artists, and it is exciting
for us to collaborate with the artist's estate in presenting this, the first
major exhibition of Wein's work."

Albert Wein was the
only son of artist Elsa Wein. Her early influence had a profound effect on the
creative course that he would take. When Albert was 12, Elsa enrolled herself
and her son in classes at the Maryland Institute of Fine and Applied Arts, a
major art school that adhered to the academic traditions of Classicism that
would continue to have an impact on Wein's work throughout his career. He once said that the main thrust of his work
was "to modernize and stylize the classical tradition."

Wein also
matriculated at the influential Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York. In the 1930s, he worked for the Works
Progress Administration (WPA), and in 1946 won the Prix de Rome, a distinguished
award that allowed him to study at Rome's American Academy. In Europe, Wein was inspired by the classical
art of Italy, and the work of his contemporaries, both European and
American.

In 1955 Wein moved to
California where -- besides creating sculpture for numerous churches,
synagogues, and private collectors -- he drew upon his experience of New York
theater. He designed sets for television
productions and was art director for the Ernie Kovacs Show. He experimented with a wide range of media and
explored figurative abstraction in both his sculpture and painting.

In the late 1950s and
60s, Wein followed the trend toward abstraction but returned to figurative work
in the 1970s. At that time he received the commission for the major
commemorative sculpture for the new Libby Dam in Montana (1973), the largest
granite relief in the United States. The commission prompted Wein to return to
the East Coast, where his family eventually settled in Westchester County, New
York.

During his long
career, Wein received most major American awards given for sculpture. In 1989 he
was awarded a residency fellowship to the Rockefeller Foundation's Study and
Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy. In late 1990 he completed a major
commemorative medal for Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina. It proved to be
his last major work. Albert Wein died of cancer in 1991.

About the Boston
Athenæum

The Boston Athenæum,
founded in 1807, is one of the oldest and most distinguished independent
libraries in the United States. The building's first floor galleries are always
free and open to the public. The Library's Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery
features new exhibitions three to four times a year, and works of art from the
Athenæum's formidable permanent collection are on display on a rotating basis in
the public areas. Membership at the Boston Athenæum is open to all by
application. In addition to library borrowing privileges, members enjoy access
to beautiful research rooms with wireless internet access, and many events,
including concerts, lectures, book groups, children's story hours and a
delightful bi-weekly Athenæum afternoon tea. For information about membership,
visit www.bostonathenaeum.org.